Aniplex of America licenses Oreshura

[WTK]

via PR... | Oreshura Official Trailer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 2, 2013

The Animated Series “Oreshura” is set to broadcast on Crunchyroll this Winter

From the animation studio that brought the hit series
“Sword Art Online,” is a new anime series for 2013.

SANTA MONICA, CA (January 2, 2013) – Aniplex of America announces the new anime series Oreshura will be streaming on Crunchyroll. This brand new animated high school romance show is
produced by A-1 Pictures, the same studio who also produced the fan favorite Sword Art Online and Blue Exorcist. This series is also directed by Kanta Kamei, who also directed the series Bunny Drop. A couple hours after its broadcast in Japan, Oreshura will be available for streaming in the following territories: U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The 1st episode will premiere at 9:00am PST on Saturday, January 5th for Crunchyroll premium members. Free members will be able to view Oreshura one week after initial broadcast on Crunchyroll
(www.crunchyroll.com/oreshura).

A synopsis of Oreshura: Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru – or ORESHURA for short – is an adaptation of a Japanese light novel.

“The protagonist, Eita Kidou, is a high school freshman with excellent grades and a disdain for love. He used to live a regular school life with his childhood friend, Chiwa Harusaki, a girl who's nearly a sister to him, but then one day the school's most beautiful girl, Masuzu Natsukawa, confesses to him.

However, her true desire is only to fool the eyes of others and pretend to be a couple. With a certain secret of his in Masuzu's hands, Eita is forced to play along… But a fierce battle over Eita begins as his ex-girlfriend, Himeka, and his fiancé, Ai, join the fray!!” More information about Oreshura can be found at: www.AniplexUSA.com/oreshura

“We’re happy to see that fans in several different countries will be able to watch Oreshura immediately after its airing in Japan” says Hideki Goto, the president of Animation Business of Aniplex of America. “Oreshura is another example how we continue to strive to provide fans with access to more anime content immediately as possible. 2013 will be a good year for new animated titles”

[Buckeye]

That was quick. Oreshura getting license by Aniplex was pretty much a given since they own A-1 Pictures and this show is one of their productions. Pretty soon, I can see them making the same announcement for Vivid Operation since that is also an A-1 production. Given the profile of this show that I just read about, it is probably something that is headed for a DVD-only release, but we will see if it is amazing enough to get a BD release or not.

[FUNiOP]

Nice to see them taking command of this before it even starts, and simulcasting it on Crunchyroll is definitely a very welcome start. Whether I'd buy an eventual release will of course depend on my opinion of it as I watch the simulcast, but given a Blu-ray, I'd say it seems pretty likely that I would.

Looks like it's getting the second-tier AoA treatment (an aniplexusa.com page rather than its own dedicated website), but that also seems to go with getting a simulcast that's actually on-time, so I'm happy about that.

[WTK]

The series is streaming on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/oreshura) as well.